A Well-Read Woman: The Life, Loves, and Legacy of Ruth Rappaport
Author: Kate Stewart
Publisher: Little A
Publication Date: May 1, 2019
Length: 397 Pages
A featured selection in the Amazon First Reads program.
About The Author
Kate Stewart is a third-generation librarian, born and raised in the Midwest. She has worked as a librarian and archivist for ProQuest, the Library of Congress, and the US Senate in Washington, DC. She is currently an archivist at the Arizona Historical Society in Tucson, Arizona.
Overcoming Adversity and Never Giving Up
Ruth Rappaport (1923 - 2010) spent her early years in Leipzig, Germany. She was the daughter of Jewish parents and was sent to Switerzland in the late 1930s. She traveled to Seattle to live with relatives during WWII. Her father died in Buchenwald and her mother died at Ravensbrueck during the war.
Kate Stewart tells the fascinating story about how Ruth survived and thrived after she was forced to leave her family in Germany. She was a voracious reader and books helped fill the void left by her tragic early life. Ruth had visited libraries as a child and always dreamed of someday working as a librarian. She eventually earned a MLS degree and set up libraries in Vietnam for soldiers during the Vietnam War. She came back to the U.S. to work as a cataloguer in the Library of Congress for many years.
My Thoughts
When I was in elementary school, I always chose biographies to read when I visited the library. I was especially interested in the stories of famous women...Jane Addams, Clara Barton, Helen Keller, Florence Nightengale, etc.
I was immediately drawn to this book when I realized it was a biography of a librarian.
Ruth Rappaport was not famous but she lived an extremely courageous and distinguished life. Ms. Stewart used diary entries, letters, and archives to describe Ruth's "life, loves, and legacy." She visited many of the locations where Ruth lived to give the reader a clear understanding of the world as Ruth saw it.
I was especially interested in the years that Ruth spent in Vietnam setting up libraries for the soldiers and sending out packets of books/magazines to the front lines. She traveled in helicopters to oversee the branch libraries that were operating in remote areas. While in Vietnam, she was romantically involved with a U.S. serviceman for several years before learning that he had a wife and five children back in the States. Alas, Ruth was not lucky in love and never married.
The only thing I disliked about this book was the rather long history of the Library of Congress that didn't really have much to do with Ruth's story. The author provided too much (in my opinion) information about the politics, hiring discrimination and other random facts about the Library of Congress during the years that Ruth worked there.
I believe this book will find a wide audience with librarians and history buffs who are interested in World War II, Jewish history and the Holocaust.
MY RATING: 4 STARS OUT OF 5
FYI ~ I received a free digital copy of this book from the Amazon First Reads program
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